$3.3 million and counting: The cost of the Malheur occupation

The 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge cost taxpayers at least $3.3 million to cover the massive police response, a week of shuttered schools and a long list of supplies ranging from food to flashlight batteries, according to an Oregonian/OregonLive analysis of public and tribal budgets.

The total will certainly grow.

The amount doesn't include any figures from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which operates the 187,700-acre bird sanctuary seized Jan. 2 by armed militants.

The FBI, still in the midst of a criminal investigation, announced that it turned over control of the refuge to the Fish & Wildlife Service late Tuesday afternoon. The agency can only now begin to assess the damage that dozens of interlopers caused after they moved into the refuge headquarters compound. They used backhoes, government trucks and computers and left piles of garbage and feces in their wake, federal investigators said.

How we did it

At least 47 federal, state and local public agencies responded to the occupation or were affected by it, plus the Burns Paiute Tribe, which operates a police force.

Through phone interviews and spreadsheets from public officials, The Oregonian added up the costs to each one.

For ongoing expenses such as wages, fuel, lodging and mileage, we took what often came in weekly or monthly allotments, calculated a daily rate and multiplied it by 41 - the number of days the occupation lasted. We didn't do that for one-time costs, such as the $90,000-plus that Harney County said it spent on materials between Jan. 1 and Feb. 3.

But federal and state bureaucrats and lawmakers continue to puzzle over budgets, trying to pinpoint the true cost of the occupation, so this remains a snapshot.

The costs of the FBI investigation continue to add up and aren't factored into the total; the agency hasn't released its own expenses.

Taxpayers also remain responsible for holding the militants in the Multnomah County jail and trying them in court - also not included in the overall figure.

Here is a breakdown of some of the largest costs:

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$1.2 million

- the cost to Oregon State Police for wages, overtime, lodging and fuel.

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$521,800

- the cost to Harney County, its schools, Burns and Hines.

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$788,500

- the cost to local agencies throughout Oregon that responded to Harney County.

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$611,000

- the amount paid to federal workers while the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service were closed.

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$150,000

- the estimated amount (so far) paid by the Burns Paiute Tribe.

Much of the estimate reflects the expense of having scores of police officers from across the state converge on Harney County for more than a month for around-the-clock work. The cost to Oregon State Police alone stands at more than $1.2 million, the analysis found.

Another $788,500 paid for help from other police and government agencies that responded from outside the county - mostly sheriff's offices that sent deputies to help patrol. That amount also included compensation for police officers from cities including Portland and Eugene and 911 dispatchers from places including Hood River.

The overall figure includes money to pay the wages of employees who couldn't go to work - for instance, $425,000 for about 120 workers at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management who stayed home while their offices were closed.

While some federal employees were able to do certain work from home, most couldn't do their regular jobs, their bosses said.

The number doesn't factor in the cost of putting off projects, said land bureau spokesman Michael Campbell.

"We haven't even begun to think about how we could do an evaluation ... to get at the question of lost time in the field, or projects we didn't get to, or projects that were temporarily delayed," Campbell said.

Local agencies

Harney County, its schools and the cities of Burns and Hines shouldered a cost of nearly $522,000 throughout the occupation, the analysis found.

The expense of closing schools for a week - for safety concerns in the days immediately after the takeover - cost $143,600 alone in wages to staff on leave, according to figures obtained from Harney County Judge Steve Grasty, whose role is akin to that of a county chairman. Other ongoing costs incurred by the schools include heightened security on campus.

The county paid $6,400 a month to Laura Cleland, director of communications with the Association of Oregon Counties, who acted as public information officer and dealt with the onslaught of regional, national and international media. Cleland continues to work on Harney County's behalf.

The county of just over 7,100 people spent more than $90,000 on materials, including meals and the setup of joint command and information centers where agencies coordinated response and outreach. The county had to reprogram its own radios and those of other agencies so officials "could talk to each other," Grasty said.

"At one point, we were buying almost 200 double-A batteries a day for flashlights that were working all night long," he said.

The county is still adding up expenses and expects the materials figure to grow far beyond $90,000, he said.

Not included in the tally were things like added demand for food and services at the Harney County Senior Center. The nonprofit, with more than $1 million in annual revenue, runs a food pantry and administers federal energy assistance.

Executive Director Angie Lamborn encountered new faces among the regular visitors during the occupation. They asked for extra food and acknowledged they weren't full-time residents, she said.

Lamborn couldn't quantify the impact on the senior center's finances, but she said they've "taken a pretty big hit" as a result.

Thirty-six other government and law enforcement agencies from across Oregon also pitched in until the final militants left Feb. 11, sending 198 public officials to Harney County.

Of those, the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office's burden was highest, at more than $136,700, according to data collected by the FBI. The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office spent almost $70,000 and the Marion County Sheriff's Office more than $67,000.

Deputies traveled to Harney County from every corner of the state - from as far as Clatsop County on the northern coast to neighboring Malheur County. Cities sending police officers included West Linn, Bend, Eugene, Redmond, Klamath Falls and Portland.

State agencies

Oregon State Police estimated that the occupation cost the agency more than $943,700 in January. That's over $30,400 per day, pushing the total to more than $1.2 million if the rate is applied to the full 41-day standoff.

Through January, 149 state police staffers responded to Harney County - 12 percent of the agency's full-time employee roster, according to numbers sent to state officials by Rick Willis, the agency's director of administrative services.

The state police figure includes more than 5,700 overtime hours in January costing more than $447,100.

The cost of the occupation will loom over budget discussions in Salem as the short legislative session begins to draw to a close.

Gov. Kate Brown has talked with U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., about the prospect of federal money to offset some of the state's expenses, said Kristen Grainger, spokeswoman for Brown. And, in the event any occupiers are ever convicted of crimes, Brown wants Oregon to seek restitution to further reduce its costs.

"If there's an opportunity for the state to do that," Grainger said, "we absolutely will."

Federal agencies and the Burns Paiute Tribe

The Bureau of Land Management and Fish & Wildlife Service weren't the only federal agencies paying their workers to stay home.

The U.S. Forest Service oversees the Malheur National Forest, which spans Harney, Grant, Baker and Malheur counties. The agency mainly administers the forest out of John Day, but about 36 employees also work at the Emigrant Creek Ranger District office in Hines, said spokesman Mike Stearly.

Their salaries total about $31,000 per week, Stearly said. Most of the workers, he said, were able to take laptops home and work from there.

Still, Stearly said, "some of the field work was not completed and folks weren't able to provide services such as wood permits and stuff like that to the public." The Oregonian/OregonLive included Forest Service employees' costs in its calculation because of the lost productivity.

Two other federal agencies - the Farm Service Agency and the Natural Resources Conservation Service - also employ a handful of workers in Hines and were closed during the occupation, said Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Tara Thissell. Those agencies didn't immediately return phone calls seeking budget figures.

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., introduced legislation earlier this month that would require the U.S. Department of Justice to reimburse state and local agencies for their occupation-related costs up front. The bill would allow the U.S. attorney general to seek reimbursement through civil action against the militants.

The Burns Paiute Tribe, meanwhile, spent about $60,000 on additional law enforcement and $90,000 related to taking an inventory of artifacts at the refuge and keeping tabs on the occupation, tribal chair Charlotte Roderique estimated.

The tribe's operations are funded in part by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, she said.

The tribe expects to incur more costs, given reports that militants might have disturbed precious burial sites and tribal artifacts, she said.

"I really don't have a grand total," Roderique said. "But it looks like we're going to have more [expenses], of course. ... It's quite spendy."

Denis C. Theriault of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.